Let's Dance petition

Friday, 7 December 2012

Yay! Our friend snapped this outside Arty Farty tonight. Until the dance crackdown, Arty Farty was one of the liveliest venues in Nichome, Tokyo's lesbigaytrans heartland - a place with an excellent sound system, where a late night groove could be depended on. For several months, following the recent dance ban, it has been something of a shadow of its former self, but now it seems the dance ban (here at least) has been lifted!

A bargain struck with the local police? A sign of defiance on the part of a small venue? A change of policy in response to the Let's Dance petition and actions? Who knows? We will investigate further and let you know in the coming weeks.

For the time being, dust off your dancing shoes and trip the light fantastic... Arty Farty can party again.

Friday, 23 November 2012

So Niji Iro Ninja has now merged with Dance Movement Japan becoming NINJA Dance Movement! Henceforth to be referred to as NINJA Dance Movement or NDM for short. By the way, the NINJA is an acronym for Niji Iro Ninja JApan!

The Facebook page is here and the Facebook group is here. We will keep you informed of NDM events. Check out the FB page and join the FB group and invite your friends. Yoroshiku!

Thursday, 15 November 2012

Here's one of the very cool flash mobs that's taken place as part of the F/T art festival. Choreographed by Jérôme Bel, I love that this dance is made up of movements easy enough for regular people to execute, while hitting a sweet spot between ridiculous, fun, and joyful.

The F/T Mob series is part of the F/T art festival. In each
F/T Mob, a renowned choreographer or director stages a flash mob intervention
involving dancers and members of the public. Unfortunately, I missed the start
of this festival but some of my friends attended and participated in the event
directed by hip hop choreographer, KENTARO!! which melded hip hop with
contemporary dance. All events are centred on Ikebukuro, the home turf of the
F/T festival. There are two more weekends of flash mobs, this coming weekend's, by contemporary dancer/choreographer, Momoko Shiraga, and next weekend's
intervention by mime artist and director, Shuji Onodera. For more information,
check out the F/T website.

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

'Time to change a strange adult entertainment law in Japan', by Richard Smart, posted on CNN Travel on January 26th, 2011
This article takes a look at some of the strange and outdated points of the fueiho. My personal favorite states that "In night hours (which in Tokyo law are between 1 a.m. and dawn), customers are not to partake in revelry (yukyou)."

Sunday, 11 November 2012

Yesterday's protest had an infectious spontaneity! Niji Iro Ninjas joined a group of break dancers in the circular paved area at the entrance of Yoyogi Park, made a large circle and watched our friends take turns free-styling to whatever came up! Admittedly, this wasn't entirely what we had planned - not quite a full-on spectacle (that is something we need to work on) - but we rallied anyway and managed to welcome fine newcomers including a high school student who leapt into the circle and threw some shapes and a friendly Finn tourist, nicknamed Pie Chart, who pulled out his salt-liquorice Salmiakki Liquor - 32% proof - and shared it with us! Our man Isaac did a top job of getting everyone fired up with his fabulous moves and the break dancers were so generous in extending their groove to our gathering.

The whole thing had a kind of innocence about it, like an episode of Fame from the 80s transmuted to 21st century Nihon. (The whole NYC park fantasy dance thing very much fits Yoyogi somehow! if you know what I mean - Yoyogi Tower has that NYC Chrysler Building vibe about it.)

A boom box, break dancers, dusk, hip hop, disco, gundam, Salmiakki, friends = nearly the best soul tonic there is pretty much! As my friend Nina beautifully put it 'yesterday's [dance protest] sounds like it was hitting that important place of innocence and joy that is always more radical than is apparent'.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Today is the latest Niji Iro Ninja dance protest. Get yourself to Yoyogi Park at 5pm and stop the powers that be pulling the shutters on late night dancing in Japan. From about now there is a picnic, so feel free to join and get to know the community!

Monday, 5 November 2012

Concerned about the dance crackdown sweeping Japan? If you're in the Tokyo area, head down to Yoyogi park this Saturday at 5pm for Niji Iro Ninja's 5th flash mob! We'll be busting moves from the Gangam Style and Thriller dances, but if you don't know the steps, there'll be time for freestyle too! Our events are really fun, friendly, and international- so bring a friend and get ready to make some new ones. Your friends are interested in this issue but shy about dancing in public, you say? We welcome non dancers who support the cause and want to join the party.

Sunday, 4 November 2012

Dance Out Loud is the website of the Niji Iro
Ninja (Rainbow Ninjas) dance protest group and community. Niji Iro
Ninja was started in late August as a response to the dance crackdown that has
been sweeping Japan over the last two years and that was making itself strongly
felt in clubs in and around Tokyo. Places that had once been pleasant hangouts
for late-night dancing, not necessarily large clubs, but venues with a lively
atmosphere, great for letting off steam on Friday or Saturday night, such as
Arty Farty in Shinjuku's Nichome, were now being raided by police officers
ordering people to stop moving and instructing venues to put up signs telling
clients that dancing was forbidden. Yes, incomprehensible!

We are a group (including Japanese nationals
and foreign Japan residents) who love dancing and who are passionately opposed
to the increasingly rigid enforcement of a law that is as ridiculous as it is
archaic! If you are interested in contributing to our community and its
activities, please feel free to join us by following us here or on Facebook or
Twitter. We welcome your ideas and suggestions as well as your participation in
our events. Hopefully our activities will increase awareness of this sinister
law and spur others to protest it in their own creative ways. We are open to
contributions from all, irrespective of gender, age, sexual orientation, race
or creed. Also, you don’t have to be resident in Japan to contribute! (But you
do have to be resident in Japan to sign the Let's Dance petition.)

Niji Iro Ninja organises flash mobs in Tokyo
aimed at increasing awareness of the late-night dancing ban and creating a
community of like-minded friends keen to reverse the law and protect our right
to dance through the night! So far flash mob events have been held at Shinjuku
station and Shibuya Hachiko square and Sentaa Gai street. In a matter of weeks,
the group has gone from a keen core of twenty or so peeps to a veritable
international community - the Zombie Prom flashmob on October 20th in Shibuya
was a total blast with a motley crew of zombies in spooky maquillage, getting
their ghoulish haunches quivering to that towering classic of zombie pop,
Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Future possible locations for dance protests
and flash mobs are central night spots such as Roppongi and Harajuku,
university campuses in and around Tokyo and Yokohama, and possibly places known
for their vibrant bar and live music scenes, such as Shimokitazawa, Koenji,
Nakano, Kichijoji... Watch this space...

On this site you will find information about
the law and its enforcement and news of the activities of our community and sometimes
of other groups, like us, who are also involved in protesting it. We will
continue to post links to articles covering these topics as well as related
sites. You will also find some more general information about dance culture in
Japan, which we wish to celebrate and promote.

As a group, we wish to get people together to
protest the crack down. We don’t advocate breaking the law as this may cause
problems for venues and hassle for those working in them. Discretion is
necessary in all actions and we respect the staff in clubs and do not wish to
cause them undue stress. However, we do passionately advocate protesting against
the enforcement of this crazy law, which should, we believe, be repealed and
abandoned entirely! It is depressing, controlling, out-of-date...

The dance crackdown seems to have been instigated by
a reactionary posse of shadowy establishment figures, bureaucrats, police chiefs
and other bigwigs who are intent on destroying the late night dance scene.
Apparently, the governors of Osaka and Tokyo would prefer to promote casinos.
Though I am no expert on these matters, don't casinos have a stronger link with the
criminal underground than your small or medium-sized dance or live music
venue??? Which would you prefer in your city, large unsightly pachinko parlours
and casinos with their blinding lights and deadening throng of slot machines,
or small and medium-sized venues with a program of live music, club nights,
dance classes and art exhibitions? A carbuncle packed with gambling drones or a creative hub
promoting local talent and exciting youth cultures?

Puzzlingly, this crackdown is seemingly at
odds with the policies of the Education Ministry, which make dance a
compulsory part of the Physical Education curriculum in Junior High
Schools. So, it is okay for JHS
studes to be dancing under the supervision of their teacher, but young adults
are not to be trusted to dance after dark, to create their own vital forms of
culture beyond the watchful eyes of their seniors. What coercive, paternalistic
nonsense is this?

And for those that claim that Japanese night
spots are noisy or unruly, that certainly hasn't been my experience of clubbing
in Japan. On the contrary, many clubs are tucked away in basements, well
sound-proofed, with staff that are considerate to those that reside in the
vicinity. Japanese clubbers do not seem to me to be a particularly rowdy bunch.
The atmosphere in clubs tends to be friendly, unthreatening, not overly
drunken, certainly not unruly. The Japanese night is almost miraculously benign
and attitude-free, especially to foreign observers! Of course clubs need to be
safe, of course club owners need to take responsibility for noise, to keep
drugs and under-age partiers off their premises. Of course. As far as I can
see, Japanese club owners have been doing a very good job on all of these
counts, so why the sudden change of policy?

Our group believes that late night dance
culture is an essential element of a healthy and vibrant culture, a joyful expression
of our love of music and a celebration of existence! It
is a way of meeting and interacting with others, a beautiful form of exercise
and a wonderful way to relieve stress in our hectic contemporary world! Dancing
in clubs can provide access to fascinating people, music, art, performance,
film, fashion, body art, and a wonderful plethora of exciting new cultures and
trends from all over the world!

Furthermore, it is good for business in Japan!
At a time when Japan is in the economic doldrums, shouldn't the government be
promoting lively and lucrative forms of youth culture and expression, not criminalising them?

Why, suddenly, at the start of the 21st
century, should the Japanese government choose to deprive Japan of the pleasures
associated with the fascinating and vibrant culture that has developed around
dancing in nightclubs, when the opposite is true of most world metropolises?

It has been two years since the dance
crackdown started in earnest, so it is high time to stand up for free
expression. We need to fight for our right to party through the night; to fight
together peacefully, respectfully, with the funk of 40,000 years... If we don’t
fight for late-night dancing, then other freedoms and cultures may be eroded by
a nonsensical agenda which aims at straightjacketing youth expression.

The article quotes a recent interview with Ryo Isobe, seasoned Tokyo clubber and author of the book, "Odotte wa Ikenai Kuni, Nihon (Japan: the Country Where You Must Not Dance)", which is about his experiences and views of the late-night dance ban.

The piece also draws attention to the murkier politics involved in the crackdown - the Tokyo Government's attempts at a 'purification mission' in Kabukicho (!) and the Osaka government's possible intentions to separate the entertainment district from residential areas, promoting casinos instead of dance clubs...

These government drives tend to push the sex trade further underground, making conditions worse for sex workers, at the same time crushing the late night dance scene (which as we know, has little direct involvement with the sex industry anyway).

The piece finishes with a call to action from Isobe who says clubs should be more united in their actions, lobby politicians, and clean up their act by ensuring customer ID is checked on entry to their premises and that drugs are kept out of clubs.

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

The Fueiho is not a new law, nor is this the first time it's been used to suppress club, music, and youth culture. While searching for information on the current crackdown, I came across this article, published in Tokyo Classified (which would go on to be renamed Metropolis in 2001). Stop the Music, published in issue 296, seems to have been written in the late 90's, and describes a crackdown on clubs in Minato ward. The thing that struck me about this article is how similar the situation was to the one we have now, in 2012. Familiar themes emerged: a lack of clarity on why the old law was suddenly being enforced, theories of certain areas being targeted for image change, and few willing to speak on record.

Then, too, the reaction from the club/ music/ dance world was that the law was ridiculous and oppressive. Here's one voice of protest: a anti-Fueiho anthem from You the Rock. From 1998, here's Hoo! Ei! Ho!

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Yesterday's Zombie Prom was a blast! The costumes and the larger number of participants helped to make a more determined ripple in the lively pond that is Saturday-night Shibuya. The dancing zombies and funky spooks met in Yoyogi Park and at the Hachiko dog, practiced moves, put on their faces and generally psyched up before setting off in a raggle-taggle parade down Sentaa Gai, handing out fliers and Let's Dance Petitions...

Thanks to all participants for an excellent awareness building parade and let's meet again soon. In the meantime don't forget to print off the Let's Dance petition, sign it, get your friends to sign it and pop it in the post. Have your say!

This in-depth article dives into the historical context in which the fueiho developed, from the first crackdown on dance halls in the 1920's, to the links between prostitution and dance in the 40's that were the the reality when the 1948 laws were penned. After brushing us up on our history, Hadfield explores theories of why the crackdown is happening. Is this a public morality campaign, a convenient cover for other police investigations, or something else?

'Let them dance', Editorial comment in The Japan Times on Sunday, August 5th, 2012

This opinion piece describes how the enforcement of the Business Entertainment Control Law
squeezes out smaller clubs and businesses while denying youngsters meaningful
spaces in which to socialize and enjoy themselves. While safety regulations are
obviously important, the editorial points out that fights, drugs and
prostitution are not specifically linked to the DJ and music scene, and so the
outlawing of dance as a threat to public morals is meaningless.

To bring you up to date on developments over
the last couple of years and further back still, we will post informative
articles which have appeared in various publications casting some light on the
dance ban madness starting with:

This article discusses the impact of the recent
police crackdown on the dance scene in Tokyo and Osaka as well as the live
music scene in smaller provincial cities such as Kumamoto, where it has been
even more devastating. Martin describes the ban as an attack on local culture and
regional economies and the vague and outdated Business Entertainment Control Law
as a 'convenient stick with which to beat down a section of society [the
police] feel threatens social harmony.'

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Did you know that late night dancing in Japan is facing a police crackdown? This is because, in the last couple of years, without any official explanation, police have started enforcing a 1948 law restricting dance - a law that was more or less ignored for six decades! It is known as the Entertainment and Amusement Trade Control Law or alternatively The Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law. In Japanese, it's known as the Fueiho (short for Fuzoku Eigyo Torishimari Horitsu).

We are a group of dance lovers passionately opposed to the enforcement of a law which is ridiculous, archaic and sinister! We wish to raise awareness of the dance ban and gather support for the Let's Dance petition, which calls for dancing to be removed from the activities that are regulated under the Entertainment and Amusement Trade Control Law. If you too oppose the current crackdown on dance, please join us by following us here or on Facebook or Twitter and by signing the online petition!